Elections 2024: Prime minister’s party has to fight for its survival

The local elections on 13 October are important for every party, but especially for Open VLD, the party of prime minister Alexander De Croo. After a crushing defeat at the regional and national elections, another step backwards could see the end of the Flemish liberal party.

The elections on 9 June were a disaster for Open VLD. The traditional parties – liberal, socialist and Christian democrat – have been seeing their voters shift to green, extreme left and extreme right for several decades. But Open VLD is now close to the electoral threshold. If they lose a couple more percentage points, they will have no MPs left.

The entire party leadership resigned after 9 June and the new leader, Eva De Bleeker, wants to reinvent the party and change its name.

Before that happens, Open VLD is participating in the elections for municipal and provincial councils. Notably, most of the liberal lists don’t go under the name of Open VLD and even De Bleeker is running under a local name: Team 1560, referring to the postcode of her municipality in Flemish Brabant.

Open VLD is not the only party where local names are preferred over the national one. With traditional parties losing popularity, local candidates prefer local names to avoid the negative associations.

In the last term of office, Open VLD had 38 mayors, about half what it had in the previous term. They gained power in smaller cities such as Ghent, Ostend and Kortrijk, and for now, it looks like they will be able to keep most of those seats. But the antipathy of 9 June has not disappeared. Even De Croo – still the PM, as a new federal government hasn’t yet been formed – is not sure of victory in his hometown of Brakel in East Flanders.

As Open VLD continues to struggle, francophone sister party MR has already offered to merge. That message was delivered, however, by MR leader Georges-Louis Bouchez – a man known for his provocative behaviour, which helped to secure his party so many votes in the 9 June elections.

Local elections will take place at municipal and provincial levels in Belgium on Sunday 13 October. In the run-up to the vote, Belga English explores the main issues to watch out for and provides a daily overview of events.

_{#FlandersNewsService | Alexander De Croo (l) and Eva De Bleekere (right) © BELGA PHOTO NICOLAS MAETERLINCK ​} ​ ​